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2nd Baptist Church history

by Tim Isbell

In 1863, during the struggles of the Civil War, the First Baptist Church of Toledo organized a Sunday School in East Toledo. It began in Brown's Hall at the corner of Front and Oak Streets. On January 10, 1864 a pioneer group of 11 people met to organize the East Toledo Regular Baptist Church. Weekly morning services were held in Brown's Hall, with preaching in the afternoons at the Union Chapel (essentially a shared church sort of building used for funerals and special services).

Soon the church constructed a building at Forth and Steadman Streets, and dedicated it on February 11, 1866. This brick structure seated about 300 persons and was the first church building erected in the downtown section of East Toledo. By this time, the church had about 50 members.

In 1874, Mrs. Orrin Phelps presented the church with a bell, which would later move to a new building.

About 40 years later the congregation decided to build a modern structure in a central location: Main and Greenwood. On December 15th the congregation marched from the old building to this new one.

In 1915, they purchased the new pipe organ.

In 1960, a renovation project replaced a curtain that previously hid an overflow area, with a solid wall. This is the wall at the extreme right side of the panorama photo at the top of this page. This project also provided new classrooms and office space.

In 1971-3, another remodeling project replaced the roof and remodeled much of the interior space.

In 1985, the church purchased the property at the corner of Greenwood and Euclid and converted it to a parking lot.

After some years of decline, Second Baptist Church merged with Riverside Baptist Church and Maumee Trinity Baptist Church. The resulting merger occurred on May 1, 1996 and is now known as the Cass Road Baptist Church (100 Cass Road, Maumee, Ohio). In the process, the Second Baptist Church Building was sold to the Salvation Army.

In 2014, Robin learned that the Salvation Army was unable to continue maintaining the building and that they had contracted with a demolition company to tear it down. This event triggered her to search for a way to salvage the windows.

Do you have some historical material to share about Second Baptist and its people?

Readers of this webpage may have additional 2nd Baptist Church history to share. If you are one of these, Contact Tim and we'll work together to see what we can include on or beneath this webpage. For example, we could add a webpage that includes a photo album of historic pictures (such as baptisms, weddings, baby dedications, and so on). We can also construct some sort of "electronic filing cabinet" for electronic copies of old documents of historic value.

Click Church Windows to read more about the Second Baptist stained glass window project and the story that goes with it.

Note:

In about 1845 American Baptists decided to stop supporting missionaries who held slaves, which triggered the Southern Baptist Convention to split off. To know more: American Baptist tradition.